Darth Vader 'supports' Flock cameras at city council meeting
The short version: A Darth Vader costume at a San Diego council meeting made a joke out of Flock surveillance, but the punchline is how real the Empire's camera network already is.
Our Take
Credit to WKYC Channel 3 and whoever in San Diego decided public comment needed a little cosplay: a man dressed as Darth Vader telling the city council that "the emperor is a fan of Flock" is the kind of stunt that gets clicks precisely because it's not that far off. Flock Safety's ALPR network really does function like an empire-building exercise — thousands of cameras, one company, and a growing habit of local governments signing up without much public debate before the contracts are signed.
The joke lands because it captures something true: these systems are sold as neighborhood watch tools, but they scale into something closer to centralized tracking infrastructure, with data that can be queried far beyond the jurisdiction that installed the camera. San Diego's council chambers have become one more battleground where residents are pushing back on that scale-up, and costumes aside, the underlying fight is dead serious.
If you want to know whether the Empire has already set up shop on your street, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for a Sith Lord to make your city council pay attention, head to our take-action page to push back before the next contract renewal.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WKYC Channel 3, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.